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Flame of the Firehawk
|part = GD_Shields.A_Item. Shield_Nova_Fire_Phoenix GD_ItemGrades.Shields.Item Grade_Gear_Shield_Nova_Phoenix GD_Shields.Accessory. Accessory6_Nova_Phoenix GD_Shields.Material. Material4_VeryRare_Nova_Phoenix |game1 = Borderlands 2 |variants link = on }} The is a Nova Shield manufactured by Maliwan. The Flame of the Firehawk is obtained from the mission Cult Following: The Enkindling located in Frostburn Canyon. Special Weapon Effects Constant fire nova effect when the shield is depleted. This effect lasts indefinitely, as long as the shield remains at 0, and triggers roughly every two seconds. Any shield recovery forces for a complete shield recharge before the effect can trigger again. Usage & Description The Flame of the Firehawk is a powerful nova shield which repeatedly releases novas for as long as the shield remains depleted. As with all nova shields, the Flame of the Firehawk is well-suited against melee attackers and tightly clustered crowds. Additionally, the condition for nova bursts being only that the shield remain depleted, it continues to burst while going into Fight For Your Life. This often means scoring an effortless Second Wind, even before the Fight For Your Life timer actually starts; but if a Second Wind is not achieved this way, some players may have difficulty tracking a weapon's aim on an enemy through the nova bursts. Performance of a Flame of the Firehawk will suffer from investments in improved recharge delay (e.g.: Ward, Tactician class mods, badass tokens), as these will reduce the number of novas fired before the shield begins to recharge. Performance is improved by investments in recharge rate, shortening the time charging to full. Capacity bonuses will have a negative impact unless matched by recharge rate bonuses. Skills which automatically recharge a portion of a shield's charge (e.g.: Inertia, Blood Soaked Shields), even with only one point invested, completely nullify the special characteristic of this shield. The novas only continue so long as the shield is depleted, and then cannot trigger again until the shield is fully recharged; with such skills, any kill made will partially recharge the shield and stop the novas. Such skills effectively render the Flame of the Firehawk an above average nova shield at best. Given that Krieg the Psycho has numerous traits which increase his shield recharge delay such as Feed the Meat and Embrace the Pain, the Flame of the Firehawk's effectiveness can be greatly increased: the longer the sheild recharge delay, the more novas that can occur. Notes *On average (i.e., for most shield parts combinations), only the Black Hole and Hide of Terramorphous provide greater base nova damage; in practice, the Flame of the Firehawk will still deal more nova damage, because it can fire more than one nova burst. Only the Hide of Terramorphous has a wider blast radius. *The Flame of the Firehawk can spawn with a Maliwan capacitor, granting the "Inflammable" prefix and fire immunity to its wearer. It cannot spawn with resistance against any other element. *The reward icon for this item is purple for 'very rare', contrary to the orange rarity on the card when checked at any other time. Trivia *The Flame of the Firehawk is the only orange item in the game given as a mission reward. * The name of the shield and its special effect is reminiscent of Lilith's Phoenix skill from Borderlands. *The flavor text refers to the mythological bird the phoenix, which was said to die in a burst of flames and to emerge from these flames reborn, effectively being immortal. Category:Borderlands 2